Survey: Who is really Hervé Temime, the most powerful lawyer in France?
Does a place tell a man? In his corner office with Elysian dimensions, nothing allows us to guess the profession of Me Temime. No black dress forgotten on a peg. On the walls covered with golden paneling hang only abstract or hyper-realistic canvases. The shelves are lined with exhibition catalogs and not law manuals shriveled from being consulted. Seated in front of a huge pop-style table, the house master turns his back on four neon triangles by visual artist Daniel Buren. "As I got older, I became very sensitive to my aesthetic environment," he tells me on this winter afternoon. How to say it in a not too pedantic way? I like what is beautiful. His office occupies two entire floors of a neo-classical building on rue de Rivoli facing the colonnades of the Louvre. And to reach his museum office, you have to take a grand marble staircase and then cross state rooms bathed in light.
One detail, however, catches the eye a little more: his table and curtains shine bright yellow, as do the cardboard covers he uses on court days or his firm's logo, a "T" surrounded by 'a square. Yellow too. The color of gold, the symbol of money, of power. And pride. Do we have a track here? He dodges before changing the subject. Near the window stands a sculpture by the artist Arman. Two transparent plates that enclose hundreds of small colored circles. Casino chips? Yes, and the lawyer's eyes sparkle behind his eternal round tortoiseshell glasses: “They come from the Palais de la Méditerranée. For a long time, he defended the memory of the heiress of this Nice gambling establishment, Agnès Le Roux, who mysteriously disappeared in 1977. Do the multicolored coins of the Plexiglas work contain only courtroom memories? For the moment, Me Temime says no more. And you have to be satisfied with the decor.
At 62, he is one of the most powerful lawyers in France, one of the most in demand, one of the most expensive, in show biz and in the business world. He advises Roman Polanski, Ladj Ly (the director of Les Misérables), Catherine Deneuve, Laura Smet, Patrick Bruel, but also big bosses like Alain Afflelou or Bernard Arnault, via the Russian oligarch Dmitri Rybolovlev. If the light is not displeasing to him, he loves nothing more than cultivating mystery. What is her Rosebud? He could savor his successes, but he continues to work like a maniac. What is he after? A doctor is best talked about by his patients. The rule, it is said, is transposable for a lawyer. Except that those whom Me Temime “treats” are often very important people concerned with preserving their tranquility.
At the mere mention of his name, Bernard Tapie and Gérard Depardieu, his clients for years, nevertheless agreed to talk to me about him. The first appreciates his taste for “joke”, this “solid” character, this “great simplicity”, when the actor salutes a sensitivity, an “exceptional humanity” and this sense of words: “Hervé speaks just. He speaks true. “The immarcescible Nanard just as much as the great Gégé seem to describe a double of themselves, as if the star of the bar had held up a mirror to them. Doesn't he invest himself body and soul in his mission as a lawyer? The higher the bet on the big green carpet of justice, the more he rejoices, but with manias worthy of the great champions of poker. It is one of his closest, Valérie Lemercier, who delivers this clue. To my request for an interview, the actress first responded with a short text message: “For Hervé, I am here. Sitting in a cafe near the Comédie-Française one evening in December, she reveals one of the rituals of the man with whom she lived for seven years: “Before each trial, his things are ready the day before. He has his favorite clothes. “Under the toga, a white shirt and a suit, both tailor-made and of which he chose the fabrics himself. "It's his protection," slips Valérie Lemercier. Its protection against what? “Hervé gives the appearance of a nice boy, but he is not smooth at all, warns me the novelist Yasmina Reza, who is one of his friends. He is a very complex person. »
It's a full house at every hearing
